When a person's respiration suddenly stops, artificial ventilation may be necessary. One of generally used techniques (practices) is bag mask ventilation, which utilizes Ambu bag and a facial mask. But in order to continue artificial ventilation, endotracheal intubation (or “intubation”) is usually necessary. One of common techniques (practices) utilizes direct laryngoscope to visualize patient's airway and insert endotracheal tube (“ETT”) into trachea. Another technique (practice) utilizes an ETT with image capture device (image acquisition device) embedded at the tip of the ETT. Medical personnel can easily visualize patient's airway by viewing image (video) displayed on a monitor which is transmitted from the image capture device, such as, for example, a camera.
However, during this intubation process, a patient is in apnea state (i.e., not breathing). And serious brain damage or death could take place if the intubation process is not successfully completed within several minutes.